Hedonistic Sustainability

In this fascinating article, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels talks about his vision on the future of architecture. His designs integrate strikingly modern shapes with venerable ideas about climate and context. His diverse portfolio includes a power plant as well as a zoo in Denmark, office buildings in China, museums in France and Utah, and a luxe apartment building and flood-protection facilities in New York. In this Fast Company interview, he explains, a building "can create its own language if you find ways of using the forces of the environment to produce shapes or forms." Another innovation in Copenhagen involves a waste-to-water power plant around which he has designed with a ski slope, a public hiking trail and in his words, "the tallest climbing wall in the world—300 feet for those who have the cojones." Hedonistic sustainability is the idea that you can actually be sustainable but increase the quality of life while doing so.